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Page 2 Sciento logy

IndexThis page: Eugene Patterson, editor andpresident of  The St. Petersburg Times,

tells about the long struggle to crack thewall of mystery surrounding the Churchof Scientology.

Page 3: The Church of Scientology cameto Clearwater four years ago, anddocuments reveal that its written planwas to establish its programheadquarters in the old Fort HarrisonHotel and to take control of the city.

Page 4: Scientology centers on theThetan, "the individual life source, thesoul. . . the person himself. . . simply

that which is aware of being aware."The Thetan is immortal.

Page 5: Scientology has been in and outof federal courts in battles with the IRSover its tax-exempt status.

Page 6: Under founder L. RonHubbard's "fair game" policy, personsviewed as "attackers" could be "tricked,sued or lied to or destroyed."

Page 7: The Church of Scientology cameto Florida's Suncoast in late 1975wearing a cloak of secrecy that

concealed a dagger of deceit.Page 8: While the church was publiclywooing citizens of Clearwater, behind

the scenes its agents were investigatingpublic officials and civic leaders andcompiling dossiers on them.

Page 9: Clearwater Mayor GabrielCazares's criticism of the church placedhim high on Scientology's "dirty tricks"

list.

Page 10: The St. Petersburg Times wasplaced at the top of the church's enemies

list and plans were adopted to try tosilence the newspaper.

Page 11: One such plan involved tryingto "restrain"  Times reporter Bette Orsiniby attacking the Easter Seal Society, runby her husband.

Page 12: The Church of Scientologyinfiltrates the Clearwater Sun.

Page 13: The church tries to infiltratePinellas police agencies.

Page 14: Scientologists' use of phony IRSidentification arouses suspicion andleads to arrests.

Page 15: A Scientology book spells outthe rationale for the church's "spysystem," which basically was an eye foran eye.

Page 16: The church considers the nineScientologists sentenced to jail modernmartyrs, political prisoners of a vengefulgovernment.

Page 17: Hubbard is a reclusive andmysterious man who grants nointerviews and goes to extraordinarylengths to keep the outside world at bay.

Published Jan. 9,1980 by The St. Petersburg

Times.This series of articles on the Church of

Scientology originally appeared in issues ofThe St. Petersburg Times  Dec. 16-30.

ThewriterCharles Stafford, the author ofthis series of articles on theChurch of Scientology, has beenchief of   The St. Petersburg TimesWashington Bureau since 1968.Stafford, 55, is a nativ e ofGrafton, W.Va. and a graduate ofthe University of West Virginia.Before coming to  The Times,  hewas Washington correspondentfor the  Tampa Tribune.

Layout by Bob Casey of   The St.Petersburg Times.

Created by  Times  staff artist EarlTowery, the cover depicts thecross symbolic of the Church ofScientology. The Fort HarrisonHotel, Clearwater headquartersof the church, is in thebackground. The upright bar ofthe ancient cross representsspirit, and the horizontal barstands for matter. Thus the basicsignificance is that of the spiritand the difficulties of itsprogression through matter.

Shedding light on Scientology's dark sideBy EUGENE PATTERSON

When a strang e new force imbeds itselfclandestinely in this community and sets outto harm people who raise questions about it,a newspaper has a particular duty to resistintimidation itself and inform citizens fullyof what is going on.

For four years The St. Petersburg  Timeshas printed fragments of the Scientologystory as our reporters painstakingly pieced ittogether in the face of unending obstacles.Now Staff Writer Char les Stafford is pullingtogether the whole story in one coherentpresentat ion — or as near to coherence as thecockeyed facts of the ma tter will permit.

We know now that  The Times was placedat the top of the cult's "enemies" list shortlyafter the Scientologists started buying upmillions of dollars worth of prop erty indowntown Clearwater — vast tracts of thesparkling little city. Th ey moved a majorheadquarters off a ship at sea and landed itin our county seat.

BUT WE WERE NOT  particularlysurprised to discover this No. 1 designationfor  The Times  in the documentary evidencethat is sending nine of the church's leaders to

 jail after c onviction in a Washington , D.C.federal court. We've felt the heat for manyyears now as our reporters h ave toiled toanswer the community's question: What is

this Chur ch of Scientology, and what is itdoing in Pinellas County?

Our reporters, and particulary BetteOrsini, came under attack by theScientologists from the very start when theirinquiries pierced the deceit of a front nameand forced the church to identify itself as thesecret cash buyer of the Fort Harrison Hotel.

Church officials harsly denigrated Mrs.Orsino and other  Times  reporters in publicand slandered them to their editors because

they were insistent on printing the truth.Their investigations of the church's past

practices elsewhere in the world hadprepared the reporters, though. They knew itwas a practice of this peculiar organization totry to ruin persons it perceived as unfriendly.

The record showed it was also a practiceto try to intimidate newspapers and otherpublications with threats of expensivelawsuits if they did not spare Scientologytheir critical scrutiny.

HAVING ALREADY  observed theharassment of its reporters and the efforts tostain their professional reputations, thisnewspaper fully expected the church's threatof a baseless libel suit when it landed on ourdesks. We were not dealing with anorganization that played by ordinary rules.So  The Times  took the extraordinary step ofsuing them before they could make good ontheir threat to sue us. We asked a court toenjoin the church from continued efforts atharassment and intimidation of ourreporters. We felt the need for an injunctionto protect them as they went about their taskof trying to inform the public about the cultthat was setting out to control Clearwater.They needed it.

Now you will know what happened next.By infiltration or burglary or both,operatives of the church stole

communications between  The Times

  and itsattorneys, both its St. Petersburg lawyersand its Washington law firm. They werereading our mail. Theft was being practicedby members of a group calling itself a church.

The amateurish vilification directed atTimes executives by the church's Clearwaterpublication, Freedom, was to be expected.The late chairman of   The Times  board,Nelson Poyn ter, was falsely accused of beinga CIA agent (Scientologists alternately

considered smearing him as a communist,their documents show.) This writer was

falsely called an FBI informant. So far as mywife knows, she never received the telephonecall a Scientologist plotted to make to her inan effort to get her on tap e saying,unwittingly, some uncomplimentary thingsthey could use against me.

Unable to find a yielding pressure pointinside  The Times,  church operatives went toan incredible length. They went afterreporter Bette Orsini's husband.

THE FACT THAT HE had donenothing wrong did not deflect a poison-pencampaign against him. He was not even anewspaperman. He was the able director of asmall charity in Pinellas County. Ananonymous letter accompanied by a bale ofstate documents abou t his conduct of thecharity, supposedly showing criminality,landed on  The Times'  city desk and showedup at two or three other Florida newspapers.Our prompt, in-depth investigation of theallegations showed Mrs. Orsini's husbandwas innocent of any wrongdoing.

She, the n, was assigned to discover whohad compiled those documents thataccompanied the poison-pen letter aimed ather husband.

Within days this skilled reporter hadnailed down the true identity of the man who

had used false credentials to procure many ofthe documents from the state records officein Miami. He was a Scientologist.

As  The Times b uilt its case for aninjuction to protect Mrs. Orsini and herfamily from victimization such as this, itbecame clear that the innocent charity wasgoing to be dragged into any court figh tbetween the Scientologists and  The Timeswith possible resultant damage to itsfund-raising capabilities, through no doing of

its own, and through no wrongdoing by itsdirector. Rather than permit an innocentthird party to be even threatened withdamage by airing of the Scientologists' falseallegations,  The Times  dropped its lawsuit.

But the newspaper and Mrs. Orsini didnot drop the reporting effort to illuminatethe dark corners of the church's operations inPinellas County. Documents now availableshow she had badly shaken the church"Guardian s' " confidence that they couldprevent her from cracking their wholeclandestine spy system. If she could catch theScientologist in Miami as she had done, theyknew she was doggedly following the righttrack toward the truth about them all.

BUT AT THAT point, the U.S.

government, after years of investigation,found a Scientology burglar who was ready toturn whistleblower and tell the truth. Armedwith his testimony about wholesale theft ofdocuments from government buildings(which Mrs. Orsini detailed in thisnewspaper last year), FBI agents obtainedsearch warrants from courts and made raidsthat produced the staggering volume ofincriminating documents that have now sentnine Scientologists to jail.

Far more important than thoseconvictions, though, is the light thedocuments themselves now permit us to shedon operations of the church. In ignorance of

what is happening, a community mightsubmit uncertainly to being terrorized. Anewspaper's job is to make plain the natureof what is happening , even if it takes years topiece it together, so that information canguide citizens in their judgments.

Now after four frustrating and at timespainful years, we are able, in CharlesStafford's series, to give you the story. Thecult is still here. But the community'suncertainty about the facts is forever gone.

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Scientologybrings 4 yearsof discord

It was this time four years ago — this timeof year when the old-time religion celebratesthe bir th of a child — that the new religioncame to Clearwater.

It came sneaking into town: a religionwith beliefs and practices so alien to theteachings of Jesus that are preached inClearwater's Christian churches, so differentfrom the law of the prophets th at is taug ht inthe city's synagogues.

This is t he law of the God of Israel: Thoushalt not steal.

ON NOV. 9,1975 — the Sabbath — anagent of the new religion with the code name"Silver" entered Internal Revenue Service(IRS) headquarters on Constitution Avenuein Washington, and made his way to theoffice of Charles Zuravin, an att orney in the

disclosure division of the chief counsel'soffice. "Silver" found the file he wanted andbegan copying documents. When he left latethat Sunday, he took with him a stack ofcopies of confidential IRS documents onefoot thick. That was theft.

This is the commandment of Jesus: Thoushalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

ON  DEC. 5,1975, the hierarchy of thenew religion issued this directive:

"Power Project 3: Normandy."Major Target: To fully investigate the

Clearwater city and county area so we candistinguish our friends from our enemies andhandle as needed."

Neighborly?This is law of the God of Israel: Thou

shalt not bear false witness against thyneighbor.

On Jan . 26,1976, a day when Scientologywas still masquerading in Clearwater as theUnited Churches of Florida, a church officialnamed Joe Lisa informed another churchleader that he had devised a scheme to getreporter Mark Sableman fired by theClearwater Sun. This was his plan: "Have awoman (elderly) go into the office and ingrief and misemotion (sic) st art screamingshe wants to see Sableman's boss. Sh e goes inand sees this man and screams and cries

about Sableman sexually assaulting her son,or grandson. The woman takes a magazinewhich is lurid and perverted and throws itinto the face of the man/woman and screams'Look what he gave my son, not to mentionwhat the pervert did .. . sob, sob, to myJohnny.' I'm going to the police. If you can'tdo something about that pervert Sableman Iwill see they do something to you."

TW O DAYS LATER citizens ofPinellas County learned that their newneighbors in the Fort Harrison Hotel inClearwater were practitioner s of a newreligion, Scientology, founded ju st 29 yearsago by a science fiction writer named L. RonHubbard.

It was 19 months before the governmentof the United States discovered that agentsof theXJhurch of Scientology had beensystematically rifling files of governmentagencies for more tha n two years.

Discovery of the true natu re ofScientology began on July 8,1977 — toScientologists a day th at will live in infamy— when FBI agents pounded down the doors

Discovery of the true natureof Scientology began onJuly 8, 1977 when FBIagents pounded down thedoors of church offices inLos Angeles andWashington and cartedaway 48,149 documents.

of church offices in Los Angeles andWashington an d cart ed away 48,149documen ts. Many of thes e were copies ofgovernment documents that agents like"Silver" stole after infiltrating government

agencies. Other s were files of privateorganizations, like the American MedicalAssociation and  The St. Petersburg Times.

STILL OTHERS were internaldocuments of the Church of Scientology, andthese would reveal myriad dark secrets.

But knowledge of what the documentscontained came slowly to the public.

On Aug. 15,1978, a federal grand jury inWashington indicted 11 Scientologists, nineof whom held high positions in the church'sGuardian Office. That office had thismandate: "To sweep aside oppositionsufficiently to create a vacuum into whichScientology can expand." The 28-count

indictment charged them with conspiring tosteal government documents, theft ofgovernment documents, and conspiring toobstruct justice.

The 11 included Mary Sue Hubbard,world traveler, wife of the founder ofScientology, and second- ranking officer ofthe church; Jane Kember of England, thehead of the worldwide church's GuardianOffice, and these other Scientologists: M orris

"Mo " Budlong of England; Henning Heldt,Los Angeles; Duke Snider (no relation to thebaseball player), Hollywood, Calif.; RichardWeigand, Van Nuys, Calif.; GregoryWillardson, Beverly Hills, Calif.; MitchellHermann, also known as Mike Cooper,Hollywood, Calif.; Cindy Raymo nd,Hollywood, Calif.; Gerald Ben nett Wolfe,

Areleta, Calif., and Sharon Thomas, LosAngeles.

ALL WERE officials of the GuardianOffice except Wolfe and Miss Thomas. Wolfewas "Silver," the agent who infiltrated theIRS, while Miss Thomas was the church'ssecret agent in the Justice Department.

On Aug. 29,1978, nine of the indictedScientologists stood before the b ench of U.S.District Judge George L. Hart Jr. in thefederal courthouse at the foot of Capitol Hilland pleaded innocent. Two were missing.Jane Kember and Mo Budlong were inEngland.

For the next 14 months, a platoon ofattorneys fought to prevent a trial and tokeep the seized documents from the publiceye. They claimed the FBI raids on churchoffices were illegal, that th e search warra ntwas too general. One U.S. District Court

 judge up held thei r claim. But two o the rDistrict Court judges — one in Washingtonand one in California — rejected their claim.The Scientologists' appeals to higher courtsalso failed.

Trial was scheduled for Sept. 24 inWashington before U.S. District JudgeCharles R. Richey. It did not begin. For twoweeks attorneys for the government and the

Scientologists argued and bargained, and onOct. 8 Judge Richey ruled that an agreementhad been reached.

As a result of that agreement, Mary SueHubbard and her eight colleagues appearedbefore Judge Richey on Oct. 26. The team ofprosecutors headed by Assistant U.S.Attorney Raymond Banoun presented awritten statement of the government's casebacked up by three folders of documents.The defense attorneys stipulated that thiswas the evidence the government would havepresented had the case gone to trial. JudgeRichey then found the nine Scientologistsguilty of one count each of the indictment.

This scenario left the defendants free toappeal. They will claim that the convictionsshould be overturned because the evidenceused agains t them was seized illegally. Butthey will not claim they are innocent ofplotting to infiltrate government agenciesand steal government documents. Theynever have.

HAVING FOUND  the Scientologistsguilty, Judge Richey lifted the seal from thedocuments seized in the FBI raids. Six boxeswere made public before attorneys for thedefendants and the church could appeal tothe U.S. Court of Appeals for the District ofColumbia. The appellate court upheld Judge

Richey and on Nov. 23, the day afterThanksgiving, the court began releasing theremaining documents.

The number had been trimmed down.Certain documents seized in the raids werereturned to the church, ap parently becausethey had no bearing on the government'scase. Others were removed to prevent injuryto innocent people mentioned in them.

But 20 boxes — roughly half of thedocuments seized in the raids — were madepublic.

Examining them is like seeing the darkside of the moon, or stepping through alooking glass.

They were taken from church offices inLos Angeles and Washington. But there is somuch in them about Scientology's plans andprograms for a quiet city in Florida.

THE DOCUMENTS  reveal that theChurch of Scientology came to Clearwaterwith a written plan to establish its programhead quar ters — its school of theology, so tospeak — in the old Fort Harrison Hotel andto take control of the city. They show that

United Churches of Florida was created as afront to protect church assets from seizure bythe government.

They show that church officials conceivedand carried out plots to discredit their"enemies" — the mayor who questionedtheir secrecy, reporters who investigated andwrote about Scientology, editor and owner of

the area's largest newspaper, even localpolice departments.

They show that covert agents of thechurch took jobs with local newspapers,community agencies, and law firms in orderto spy.

They underscore what a spokesman forthe Church of Scientology told a group ofClearwater High School students recently:"We step on a lot of toes. We don't turn theother cheek."

GOV ERN MEN T prosecutors, in amemorandum to Judge Richey urgingmaximum sentences, delivered this

 judgme nt:"That these defendants were willing toframe their critics to t he po int of giving falsetestimony under oath against them andhaving them arrested and indicted speakslegion for their disdain for the rule of law.Indeed, they arrogantly placed themselvesabove the law, meting out their personalbrand of punishment to those 'guilty' ofopposing th eir selfish aims.

"The crime committed by thesedefendants is of a breadth and scopepreviously unhea rd of. No building, office,desk, or file was safe from their snooping andprying. No individual or organization wasfree from their despicable conspiratorialminds. The tools of their trade wereminiature transmitters, lock picks, secretcodes, forged credentials, and any otherdevice they found necessary to carry outtheir conspiratorial schemes. It is interestingto note that the founder of theirorganization, unindicted co-conspirator L.Ron Hubbard, wrote in his dictionaryentitled  Modern Management Technology

 Defined...  that 'truth is what is true foryou.' Thus, with the founder's blessings theycould wantonly commit perjury as long as itwas in the interest of Scientology. Thedefendants rewarded criminal activities thatended in success and sternly rebuked those

that failed. Th e standards of human conductembodied in such practices represent no lessthan the absolute perversion of any knownethical value system.

"In view of this, it defies the imaginatio nthat these defendants have th e unmitigatedaudacity to seek to defend their actions inthe name of'religion.' That these defendantsnow attempt to hide behind the sacredprinciples of freedom of religion, freedom ofspeech and the righ t to privacy — whichprinciples they repeatedly demonstrated awillingness to violate with imp unity — addsinsult to the injuries which they haveinflicted on every ele ment of society."

AS HE PREPAR ED to sentence MaryLou Hubbard, Judg e Richey told her that her"we have a precious system of govern ment inthe United States... For anyone to use thebenefits of those laws or to seek under theguise of those laws to destroy the veryfoundation of the government is totallywrong and cannot be condoned by anyresponsible citizen."

The judge imposed maximum sentenceson Mrs. Hub bard and two other defendants:five years in prison and $10,000 fines —though he said he would reconsider Mrs.Hubbard's sentence after she has spent threemonths in prison. He sentenced five otherdefendants to four years in prison and$10,000 fines, and the remaining defendantto one year in prison — six months of itsuspended — and a $1,000 fine.

There, in capsule form, you have the storyof Scientology since it came to Clearwaterfour years ago. The details are intriguing,and th ey will come. Bu t first it is necessary tounderstand the creation of Scientology andits creator.

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Individual lifeforce is focus

of ScientologyWhen citizens of Pinellas County learnedin early 1976 that a new religion, the Chur chof Scientology, had purchased twoClearwater landmarks — the Fort HarrisonHotel and the old Bank of Clearwaterbuilding — they wondered.

Local newspapers, responding to thiswonder, attempted to explain a 26-year-oldreligion called Scientology.

That can be a hazardous undertaking.Writing in  The Scientologist: A Manual

on the Dissemination of Material,(copyright 1955), Scientology's founder L.Ron Hubbard said:"... We do not want

Scientology to be reported in the press,anywhere else than on t he religious page ofnewspapers. It is destru ctive of word ofmouth to permit the public presses toexpress their biased and badly reportedsensationalism. Therefore we should be veryalert to sue for slander at the slightest chanceso as to discourage the public presses frommentioning Scientology."

Scientology is Hubbard's creation.A precocious child, the son of a Navy

commander and his wife, Hubbard spent histeen-age years in Asia where — according tohis church biography — "he explored manyout-of-the-way places and saw manystrange-seeming peoples and customs. But itwas in northern China and India, whilestudying with holy men, that he becamevitally engrossed in the subject of thespiritual destiny of Mankind."

HUBBARD ATTENDED GeorgeWashington University — there is no recordthat he graduated — and went on to a careerin writing science fiction.

He went into the Navy in 1941."L. Ron Hubbard, A Brief Biographical

Sketch" — obtained from the Church ofScientology — tells us this was his period ofcreation:

"He survived the early war in the South

Pacific. He saw enough of war at first hand tobe sickened by it. In 1944, crippled andblinded he found himself in Oak Knoll NavalHospital. From Commander Thompson ofthe Medical Corps of the U.S. Navy, a friendof his father and a personal student ofSigmund Fr eud, he had received while stillyoung an extensive education in th e field ofthe human mind. He developed techniquesthat would help him overcome his injuriesand regain his abilities.

"Altogether, he spent nearly a year at OakKnoll, during which time he synthes izedwhat he had learned of Eastern philosophy,his understanding of nuclear physics and his

experiences among men. He says, 'I s et out tofind from nuclear physics and a knowledge ofthe physical universe, things entirely lackingin Asian philosophy.'

"He concluded that the results he wasobtaining could help others toward greaterability and happiness, and it was during thisperiod tha t some of the basic ten ets ofDianetics and Scientology were firstformulated.

"By 1947 he recovered fully."

". . . We do not wantScientology to be reported

in the press, anywhere elsethan on the religious page ofnewspapers. It isdestructive of word ofmouth to permit the publicpresses to express theirbiased and badly reportedsensationalism. Thereforewe should be very alert tosue for slander at theslightest chance so as todiscourage the publicpresses from mentioningScientology."

THAT STORY  CONFLICTS withNavy records and with a governmentdocum ent seized by the FBI in 1977 raids onchurch offices — one of many governme ntdocuments that had been copied by secret

agents of the church.A Navy spokesman recently told the Los Angeles Times that Hubbard rose to therank of lieutenant during World War II buthis service record did not show that hereceived a Purple Heart, a medal routinelyawarded for combat injuries. The spokesmanalso said, "a review of L. Ron Hubbard'smedical rec or d. .. does not indicate he wastreated for any injuries sustained during hismilitary career."

Documents released by the FBI in 1977under the Freedom of Information Act showthat Hubb ard wrote the FBI many timesduring these years complaining that theCommunist Party was attacking him andthat Russians were trying to lure him to theSoviet Union to steal his secret s ofbrainwashing. Someone at the FBI wrote"appears men tal" on one of the letters, andafter that the FBI ceased acknowledgingthem.

Among the documents seized by the FBIfrom church offices was a letter written byHubbard in 1947, to the VeteransAdministration in Los Angeles.

"After trying and failing for two years toregain my equilibr ium in civil life, I amutterly unable to approach anything like myown competence," Hubbard wrote. "I cannotaccount for nor rise above long perio ds ofmoroseness and suicidal inclinations andhave newly come to realize that I must firsttriumph above this before I can hope to

rehabilitate myself at all."He requested psychiatric treatment on an

outpatient basis.Did he receive it? The documents do not

say.

NOR DOES THE church biography.Instea d, it tells us: "In 1948 he wrote

 Dianetics, The Original Thesis,  his firstformal report of his discoveries about themind and life. The manuscript was copiedout extensively and quickly passed fromhand to hand in many countries. A grassroots interest in Dianetics spread. Lettersbegan to pour in asking for clarifications and

advice."By way of response, Hubbard wrote abook: "180,000 words of breakthrough,

 Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, exploded onto the booklists of May1950 like a roman candle of life and h ope.Providing, as it did, for a truly workableschool of the mind that would predictablyimprove the human condition, it leapt to thetop of   The New York Times best seller listand just stayed there.

"Almost immediately, thousands ofreaders began to apply the data from thebook and Dianetic groups sprang up acrossthe country, with and without sanction.

"Realizing already at this stage that themind in itself, no matter how liberated, waslimiting and that there was something'animating' the mind, he permitted thefounding in 1950, of the Hubbard DianeticResearch Foundation to facilitateinvestigation into the realm of the spirit.Thus was Scientology born."

There is a less romantic version of thecreation. It begins with Lafayette RonaldHubbard, science-fiction writer, quiteprolific, grinding out sci-fi stories forpublications like  Astounding ScienceFiction at 2 to 3 cents per word, or about $200to $300 a story.

IT R E C AL L S THAT in a 1949 lectureon science fiction, Hubbard said — a remarkthe church does not challenge but dismissesas a joke: "Writin g for a penny a word isridiculous. If a man really wants to make amillion dollars, the best way would be to starthis own religion."

It traces the creation to a Hubbard articlein the May 1950 issue of Astounding entitled,"Dianetics — A New Science of the Mind. "

Then came the book, and the birth ofScientology.

Scientology has its foundations in theeastern religions: Buddhism, Hinduism.

According to the Scientologists, the

Judeo-Christian religion begins with a Godand relates man and nature to Him. TheEastern traditions begin with man as aspiritual agent and offer ways for him toattain salvation.

Scientology, a book of the Church ofScientology setting forth its beliefs, tells usthat the "Eastern religio-philosophic modehas been that adopted by Scientology. Theexpressed ideal that from self-realization,and the resulting increased spiritual

awareness, comes harmonious integrationwith other life forms, the physical universeand ultimately, the Supreme Being, is theseminal concept of Scientology."

Scientology centers on the Thetan, "theindividual life force, the so ul .. . the personhims elf. .. simply that which is aware ofbeing aware." The Thetan is immortal.

SCIENTOLOGY BELIEVE S  "thatMan is basically good, and seeking to survive,but is encumbered in so doing by painful pastexperiences, and his harmful acts againstothers."

Hubbard theorized tha t the mind —which he considers a vehicle of the spirit,used to establish orientation in the physicalworld — is divided in to two parts, th e"analytical" and the "reactive." Theanalytical mind is described as an efficient,rational instrument, but it rarely works atfull capacity because of interference from th ereactive mind, a memory bank of painful

past experiences known as "engrams."". . . The stored pain and command

phrases in past upsets and injuries, actinglike hidden hypnotic commands imposed onthe Spirit, can cause the misery of countlesspsychosomatic illnesses," Scientology states."All these have variable manifestations butall stem from the same basic cause: old andforgotten incidents containing pain andlanguage command va lu e. .. As in anelectrical condenser, this potentially harmfulsignificance and energy is stored in thesub-levels of the reactive mind, and whenactivated, is discharged against theanalytical mind of the Thetan. This is thereal but underlying cause of the eternalrecurrence of war, illness and aberration. Toreverse this pattern of human misery in all itstragic multiplicity is the goal of auditing, thereligious practice of the Church ofScientology."

The book says, "Auditing is theScientology pastoral counseling procedureby which an individual is helped throughconfessional unburdening, and in stages, torecover his complete self-determination andability. It is done du ring a precise period oftime called a 'session,' in which an aud ito r. ..utilizes inter-personal communication andcarefully devised questions and drills...which enable the person audited, called the

PRECLEAR, to discover and therebyremove his self-imposed spirituallimitations."

THE AUDITING process is done instages, like climbing stairs, the book states."When no part of the mind remains which isnot under the individual's own control anddirection, the State of CLEAR has beenachieved — a state of supra-human awarnessand abil i ty..."

The person who seeks relief from hisengrams contracts for auditing. The scheduleof "donations" for auditing services rangefrom $25 for a beginning session to b etween

$1,000 and $5,000 for more advancedauditing. Converts might pay $10,000 to$12,000 to obtain the "State of CLEAR."

This is the source of the church's wealth,of the funds used to purchase the FortHarrison and the Bank of Clearwaterbuilding.

Scientology is governed by a creedwritten by Hubbard. The creed — thechurch's bright face — has the ring of virtue:"We of the Church believe: Tha t all men ofwhatever race, colour or creed were createdwith equal rights. That all men haveinalienable rights to their own religiouspractices and their perfor mance ..."

It goes on to encomp ass 20 specificbeliefs.Two of these 20 state:". . . all men have

inalienable rights to their own defense" and"no agency less than God has the power tosuspend or set aside these rights, overtly orcovertly."

Within those two beliefs, apparently,ther e is justification for Scientology's longwar with the government of the UnitedStates.

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Scientology has been in and outof federal courts and in again inbattles with the IRS over itstax-exempt status. It has evenresort ed to illegal tactics,placing an agent in IRSheadquarters where he stolethousands of documentsconcerning the church.

Dispute over taxstatus goes to court

On Jan . 4,1963, two large vans escortedby motorcycle policemen pulled up beforethe Washington headquarters of theFounding Church of Scientology at 19th andR streets.

U.S. marshal s climbed out of the vans andentered the church property. There theyseized 100 "E-m eters " and abo ut 20,000pages of church literature. They were actingfor the U.S. Food and Drug Administration(FDA).

Though relations between the Church ofScientology and the government had beenstrained for most of the 13 years since L. RonHubbard created the new religion, thatincident marked the first formal actionagainst the church by the government.

OTHERS FOLLOWED, most of themgenerated by the Internal Revenue Service(IRS). The church has long claimed that it isthe victim of harassment by a governmentangered because Hubbard refused to sharewith it revolutionary knowledge aboutfreeing the mind of traumas. But the actionsthe government has taken against

Scientology all center on a fun damentalquestion: Is Scientology a religion, or apseudo-scientific con game involvingamateur psychology?

The answer is vitally important. A validreligion, or church, pay s no taxes.

SCI ENTO LOGY H AS been in and outof federal courts and in again in battle s withIRS over its tax-exempt status. It has evenresorted to illegal tactics, placing an agent inIRS headquarters where he stole thousandsof documents concerning the church.

The b attle is fought at every level ofgovernment. Since coming to Clearwater, th e

church has been locked in a fight withPinellas County officials over whe ther itmust pay property taxes on the FortHarrison Hotel, the old Bank of Clearwaterbuilding, and other property it has bought inthe county.

Last Friday, th e Church of Scientologypaid $126,753.82 in back taxes, a figurerepresenting 45 percent of its total four-yeartax bill in Pinellas County.

The payment ended a long legal battle

between the Scientologists and PropertyAppraiser Ron Schultz's office over thechurch's 1976 and 1977 tax bills. Bu t it doesnot mean the church is giving up its claim tobe tax-exempt as a church. ScientologyPresident Kenneth Whitman vowed thechurch will pursu e legal battles over its 1978and 1979 tax bills, which total $151,157.51.

SCHULTZ SAID the church wascertain to lose its case on the earlier tax billsand hence decided to go ahead and pay themin an effort to "buy some PR (publicrelations)."

The Pinellas County Circuit Court heldtha t the church had to pay its 1976 tax bill, adecision affirmed by the Court of Appeal inLakeland. The case was pending before theFlorida Supreme Court. The 1977 tax bill waspending at the Circuit Court level.

There is much at stake in the tax battles.The C hurch of Scientology is obviouslywealthy. It paid around $3-million cash forthe two pieces of property in downtownClearwater. I ts funds come from the fixeddonations that church members pay forauditing, the pastoral-counseling procedure

designed to free their minds of painfulmemories.

The Food and Drug Administrationcharged the chu rch in 1963 with making falseclaims for a small device called a Hubba rdElectrometer, or E-meter, a device used insome auditing sessions.

THE E-METER — essentially a simplegalvanometer — is a small box bearin g fiveknobs and a magnetic needle. It operates on arechargeable IV2 -volt battery. A Y-cord fromthe box leads to two small cans that resemblefrozen orange juice cans. The person beingcounseled grasps the cans as the counselorasks questions. By watching the needle onthe dial, the church says, the counselorknows when the person is recalling pain.

FDA accused the church of falselyclaiming that the meter would "improve thehealth , intelligence, ability, behavior, skilland appearance" and cure arthritis,tuberculosis, ulcers and other ailments thatHubbard considered to be psychosomatic.

The FDA case lingered in the courts for10 years. It was finally settled in 1973 when

U.S. District Judge Gerard A. Gesell orderedthe E-meters returned to the church.

He ruled that (1) the church could nolonger advertise its services as a scientificcure for disease, (2) must label the E-metersas ineffective in tre ating illnesses, and (3)could only use the E-meter in "bona fide

religious counseling."IN H IS  14-page opinion, Gesell

described Scientology as a "pseudo-sciencethat has been adopted and adapted forreligious purp os es .. . There is a religioussubstance to everything when seen with theeyes of the believer." He called Hubbard "afacile, prolific author" whose "quackeryflourished throughout the United States andin various parts of the world."

The judge said Hub bard first advanced"the extravagant, false claims that variousphysical and mental illnesses could be curedby audit ing" in a science fiction magazine inthe 1940s.

As the church developed, he said,"auditing was guaranteed to be successful.All this was and is false — in short, a fraud.Contrary to representations made, there isabsolutely no scientific or medical basis infact for the claimed cures attributed toE-meter auditing."

Since Gesell had said the church wasentitled to First Amendment protection as areligion and that it could use the E-metersfor religious counseling, the church hailedthe decision as a victory.

• • •

The church's fight with the Internal

Revenue Service seems destined to go onforever.

At present, 14 churches of Scientology inthe Unit ed St ates — all except one — arerecognized as tax-exempt. The Church ofScientology of California, of which th eClearwater operation is a branch, iscontesting in U.S. Tax Court an IRS rulingthat it must pay taxes.

THE IRS does not grant tax-exemptstatus, a spokesman explained. Churches areexempt by law as long as they comply withthe law. Should IRS have reason to believe achurch is not complying, then it can audit thechurch's records, which can lead to adetermination th at it must pay taxes.

The crucial question is how a churchmakes its money and how it spends it. Theincome must be used for the general goodand not for the profit of individuals.

How this appli es to Scientology is wellillustrated by an IRS memorandumconcerning the tax-exempt statu s of theChurch of Scientology of Florida,headquartered in Miami. The Florida churchis separate from the Clearwater operation,which is a branch of the Chur ch ofScientology of California.

THE IRS memorandum, dated Sept. 1,

1972, was among the do cuments stolen fromIRS headquar ters in Washington by thechurch's agent. It was made public inconnection with the trial in Washington ofthe agent and eight other Scientologists oncharges of conspiring to steal governmentdocuments.

The National Office Technical AdviceMemorandum was sent to the IRS districtdirector in Atlanta in reply to his request foradvice on revocation of the exempt status ofthe Church of Scientology of Florida.

The memorandu m stated tha t almost allincome'of the Flo rida chu rch came from feespaid for counseling and from the sale of

books and artifacts. The church in turn paid10 percent of its income "to the internationalorganization as a 'tithe' to promulgate anddefend the religion of Scientology." Thismoney went into Swiss Trust Accounts.

"In order to qualify for the claimedexemption, Scientology must establish thatit is devote d exclusively to religiouspurposes," the memorandum said. "Thepresence of a single nonexempt purpose, ifsubstantial in nature, will destroy the

exemption, regardless of the number orimportance of truly exempt or religiouspurposes... Based on this exclusivity test,we have concluded the Church of Scientologyof Florida fails to qualify for exemptionbecause (1) its sales of books, tapes , artifacts,processing and training constitute a

substantial commercial purpose, and (2) aportion of the net earnings of Scientologymay inure to the benefit of L. Ron Hubbard,a private individ ual...

"While the information available doesnot specifically disclose the inurem ent offunds, the organization has not establishedthat the tithing of 10 percent of its grossincome to the Swiss Trust Accounts has beendistributed for exempt purposes. The Trus taccounts are held in the name of L. RonHubbard and Mary Sue Hubbard, his wife,as the sole signatories. Therefore, theorganization has failed to establish thatneither the legal title nor the beneficial use ofthe funds is held for a recognized charity or

charitable purpose."The memorandum recommended

revocation of the Florida church's taxexemption, but no action was taken.

In an apparent effort to circumvent theobjection that Scientology funds went to thebenefit of Hubbard, he and rep resentativesof five churches of Scientology — California,Washington, D.C., Michigan, Minnesota andNew York — signed a docu ment on Jun e 25,1973 "to memorialize in wri ting" a trus tarrangment they said had been in existencesince July 18,1962. Th e five churches agreedto pay tithes of 10 percent of their monthlyincomes to the trust fund. Hubbard, as the

sole trustee, was responsible for managing,administering and disposing of the fund.

A month later, a new agreement recordedthe resignation of Hubbard as trustee.Responsibility for the fund was placed in thehands of a three-member board of trustees,one of whom was Mary Sue Hubbard. Theagreement gave Mrs. Hubbard life tenureand the power to appoint the other twotrustees who would serve two-year terms.

Terms of this agreement were reported inJuly 1976 by  St. Petersburg Times  reporterBette Orsini. Sh e also found that 11 of the 12churches of Scientology then holdingtax-exempt status had collected a total of

$3.3-million in 1974 and contributed $846,310of that to the Church of Scientology ofCalifornia. Nine of the churches had depositstotaling $1-million in bank accounts inLuxembourg.

The tru st agreement was put in writtenform at a time when the IRS was going tocourt to force the Chur ch of Scientology ofCalifornia to open its books for audit. Today,the California church is contestingrevocation of its tax-exempt status in theU.S. Tax Court.

The IRS said th e church owes $1,150,458in taxes on $8,684,542 in gross receipts for1970, '71 and '72. To this it has adde d a

penalty of $287,614.

THE CHURCH  replied that the churchwas tax-exempt. But should it be found thatit was not, the church said, the governmentwas still wrong in its assess ment of taxliability because it had understated churchexpenses. The church claimed it had nettaxable losses for the three years totaling$8,859,165.

The church asked why IRS was puttingthe church and the court to the time andexpense of a trial "when the IRS has alreadyacknowledged to petitioners that after anextensive 1V2 -year audit of church records,they could find no basis for denying the

church exempt status."It accused IRS of stalling and of violating

the church's First Amendment rights.The case was opened in December 1977.

Court observers say it won't be settled forquite some time. A decision in any cou rt caseinvolving the chu rch seldom comes swiftly.

In its 16-year war with the government,the church has employed tactics that revealthe dark side of Scientology.

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Church movesto defend itselfagainst 'attackers

The Ch urch of Scientology has a persecution complex.

It apparently was born with it.The chur ch was founded by science-fiction writer L. RonHubbard. A biographical sketch supplied by the church statesthat Hubbard devised the basic doctrine of his religion whilerecovering from World War II injuries in a naval hospital.

It recounts that Hubbard explained his theories in a 1950book entitled  Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental

 Health and then, in response to grassroots demands for moreinformation, founded the Hubbard Dianetic ResearchFoundation.

The biography continues:"The United States Government at this time attempted to

monopolize all his researches and force him to work on aproject 'to make man more suggestible' and when he wasunwilling, tried to blackmail him by ordering him back toactive duty to perform this function. Having many friends he

was able to instantly resign from the Navy and escape this.trap. The government never forgave him for this and soonbegan vicious, covert international attacks upon his work, allof which were proven false and baseless, which were to last 27years and finally culminated in the gove rnment being sued for$750-million for conspiracy."

YOU WON'T find that story in any government historybooks. Attempts to learn from the Navy whether any ofHubbard's story is accurate were unsuccessful.

Queried about the church biography's description ofHubbard's career, a Navy spokesman said:

"His service record contains no entry indicating that hewas injured as a result of action against th e enemy. Injuries hemay have suffered during World War II, if any, would be filed

in his medical record. Under the Privacy Act, informationcontained in a person's medical record may be released onlywith the written consent of that individual.

"He was a patient at the U.S. Naval Hospital, Oakland,Calif., from Sept. 5,1945, to Dec. 4,1945. The reason for hishospitalization is not releasable under the Privacy Act for thereasons I have already stated.

"LT. HUBBARD was a naval reservist on inactive dutyfrom Feb. 17,1946 until Oct. 30,1950. On 30 Oct. 1950 hisresignation from the Naval Reserve was accepted. There is noevidence on record of an attempt to recall him to active duty."

In any case, a high level of tension has existed between thechurch and the government for at least the past 16 years.

This tension, this belief of Hubbard that he and hisreligion are targe ts of a government campaign of persecution,

has produced the dark side of Scientology. It gained recentnational publicity when a group of church leaders, includingthe founder's wife, Mary Sue Hubbard, were accused ofconspiring to steal government documents and obstruct

 justi ce.

The manifestations of the dark side of Scientology are aseries of policies issued by Hubbar d, as commodore of thechurch, over a number of years.

Basic to the dark side of Scientology is this definition,written by Hubbard in his dictionary entitled ModernManagement Technology Defined: "Truth is what is true foryou."

ON E OF THE  most controversial of Hubbard's dictumswas the "Fair Game Law." Under this 1965 law, a suppressive

person (S Ps in Scientology jargon) "one th at actively seeksto suppress or d amage Scientology or a Scientologist bysuppressive acts" — should be designated "fair game."

The punishment: "May be deprived of property or injuredby any means by any Scientologist without any discipline ofthe Scientologist. May be tricked, sued or lied to ordestroyed."

Mention t hat policy to a Scientologist today and he will teltyou that it was canceled by Hubbard in 1968. But Hubbard'scancellation said this:

"The practice of declaring people fair game will cease. Fair

This 1966 policy letter from founder L. Ron Hubbard details how church officials shoulddeal with those people or groups they believe are attacking Scientology. Hubbard advises:"Never talk about us — only them. Use their blood, sex, crime to get headlines. Don't useus."

game may not appear on any Ethics Order. It causes bad

public relations."This P/L (policy letter) does not cancel any policy on the

tre atme nt or handlin g of an SP (suppressive person) ."

IN 1966 ,  Hubbard advised church officials that the wayto respond to attacks was to attack the attacker. He wrote:

"This is the correct procedure:"(1) Spo t who is attac king us.

"(2) Start investigating them promptly for FELONIES orworse using our own professionals, not outside agencies.

"(3) Double curve our reply by saying we welcome aninvestigation of them.

"(4) Star t feeding lurid, blood, sex, crime actual evidenceon the attackers to the press.

"Don't ever tamely submit to an investigation of us. Make

it rough, rough on attackers all the way."Meanwhile, he said, "to get wholly over to cause we mustselect targets, investigate and expose before they attack us."

Hubbard directed that the courts be used as an avenue ofattac k. In a 1955 publication, he stated: ". .. We do not wantScientology to be report ed in th e press, anywhere else tha n onthe religious page of newspapers. It is destr uctive of word ofmouth to permit the public presses to express their biased andbadly reported sensationalism. Therefore we should be veryalert to sue for slander at th e slightest chance so as todiscourage the public presses from mentioning Scientology."

IN A PUBLICATION entitled Ability, the commodoresa id: ". .. The purpose of the suit is to harass and discouragerather than to win. The law can be used very easily to harass,and enough harassment on somebody who is simply on thethin edge anyway, well knowing that he is not authorized , willgenerally be sufficient to cause his professional decease. Ifpossible, of course, ruin him utterly."

In 1963, the church issued its "Five Press Policies," andone of them instructed members on how to handle a reporter.

"He wants a story," it said. "The only way to handle himare to eject him or to give him a story tha t he think s is a story.There are no half-way measures...

"The rules of newspaper writing today are very exact. Andthis is probably a far better analysis of the rules than he has, soyou could surely win.

"To be printed, a story must contain one or more of thesethings:

"(1) Harm (Blood, violence, damage, death, scandal)."(2) Sex."(3) Money."(4) Big names."(5) The story must be written to invalidate something."(6) The story must contain a controversy."(7) A story must contain two opposing fo rc es .. ."

See ATTACKERS, Page 7

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Page 7  Scientology

Attackers  from Page 6Hubbard devised a technique of using anonymous or covert

methods to destroy an enemy's reputation. He called the tactic"Black Propaganda."

Instruction in its use is contained in a Hubbard policy letterof 1971 reprinted in a volume entitled The M anagemen t Series.

"Themost involved employment of PR (public relations) isits covert use in destroying the repute of individuals andgroup s," he wrote. "More correctly, this is technically calledBLACK PROPAGANDA. Basically, it is an intelligence

technique."Hubbard created the Guardian Office to protect the church

from attack. Mary Sue Hub bard gave the office its goal. "Theprimary function of the Guar dian Office," she said in aGuardian Ord er of Oct. 19,1974, "is: To sweep aside oppositionsufficiently to create a vacuum into which Scientology canexpand."

ORDERS SETTING out programs for operatives in theGuardian Office were manifestations of Hubbard's policies.

Oct. 21,1974: "SITUATION: The IRS (Internal RevenueService), despite extensive legal and PR handling, is pers istingin its attack upon the C of S and LR H . . .

"IDEAL SCEN E: IRS with no false reports in their files onScientology, uninterested in Scientology taxes, other than as aroutine matt er, doing their jobs and busy elsewhere with theusual red tape of a bureaucracy, with the psy chotics located andtheir influence eliminated...

"PLAN: Finance, PR, and legal continue their actions whileB4 enters th e arena and gets every single false report in everysingle IRS file. Once the data has been revealed, the lies can becorrected, the SPs isolated and handled, further PR and legalactions initiated and the IRS attack turned off."

The order directed that agents, "trustworthy and wellgrooved," immediately infiltrate IR S offices in Washington, LosAngeles and London and obtain copies of the documents.

June 27,1975: "Info must find the who back of these IRSattacks and document it for exposure plus all other items ofinterest. It could be IRS and the government is attacking anyvocal group to pave the way for some coup by the govern ment.Evidence as to the why of these attacks must be gotten,

powerful enough to destroy the attackers when eventually usedor revealed."

THIS ORDER WAS  from Hubbard, who said thatsomewhere in IRS was "an insane individual with insane plan s"who was operating a "false reports factory." He wanted thatperson found.

Sept. 16,1976: "Operation Cat ." The order said, "The idea isto make a mockery and hold up to ridicule the computer, thesecurity services and author ity in relation to FOI (freedom ofinformation.)" The goal: "To plant grossly false information ingovernmental agencies, especially security services files, forlater public retrieval and ridiculing exposure."

Operations like these were not limited to the IR S, or even togovernment. Documents released by a federal court inWashington show tha t they were also employed against pu blicofficials and pri vate citizens on the Florid a Suncoast.

On July 21,1976, one of the strangest of many stran ge orderswas issued. It was entitled "Operation Bulldozer Leak."

It began: "MAJOR TARGET: To effectively spread therumor that will lead Government, media, and individual SPs toconclude that LRH has no control of the C of S and no legalliability for chur ch activity."

One is left to wonder how it ended, and where the68-year-old spiritual leader of Scientology now resides, andwhat policies he will promulgate next.

Church enteredClearwater on

path of deceitThe Church of Scientology came to Florida's Suncoast in

late 1975 wearing a cloak of secrecy that concealed a dagger ofdeceit.

The mystery began Oct. 27. The Fort Harrison Hotel waspurchased by Southern Land Sales and Development Corp.for $2.3-million hard cash, and then a few days later the oldBank of Clearwater building for $550,000,

For whom? And why?

A MIDDLE-AGED man in a green jump suit appearedin mid-Novemb er to say that he, Sorel Allen, was "director ofmembership and public affairs" for United Churches ofFlorida. He said the buildings would be leased to UnitedChurches, a new organization organized by laymen interestedin the religious truths of all denominations, and he said thisecumenical group would hold meetings and seminars forpersons of all faiths, and everything would be very open.

But Kenneth Seidenberg, an attorney for Jack Tar Hotels,told the St. Petersburg Times on Dec. 5 that the sale of theFort Harrison was "one of the strangest transactions we'veever dealt in." Southern Land Sales wouldn't even give JackTar its telephone number, he said.

"We have never been involved in th is cloak and dagger(kind of deal)," Seidenberg said. "They have been so secretivethat it has been driving us crazy as to who they are and whatthey are."

United Churches was not the answer.Documents recently released in the Washington trial of

nine Scientologists tell the real story. On No v. 26,1975 — ninedays before Seidenberg expressed his frustration — L. RonHubbard, founder and commodore of the Church ofScientology, issued a secret Guardian Office Order headed"Program LRH Security. Code Name: Power."

FLAG, THE chu rch's program office, sort of a theologycenter, had been at sea aboard the church-owned yacht Apollofor several years. The precise reasons why the churchmaintained a headquarters operation on a ship are not known.But now it was coming ashore. Th e quiet Gulf Coast city ofClearwater had been chosen as the new site.

Hubbard's directive said the church should establish aperma nent office there. H e stated the following goal: "Reallyattain PROAC (public relations office area control) in the CW

(Clearwater) operating area for the organizations operatingthere, sort out any weak spots or potential threats internal orexternal and handl e. .. Dynamite spots should be bepredicted far in adva nce .. . and handled before anyrepercussion occurs."

That same day, Henning Heldt, Scientology's deputyguardian for the United States, received a letter from someonenamed Ron, which read: "We. have found a whole par t of acondominium to rent. It is 5.3 miles from the FH (F ortHarrison). We have been negotiating on it as a simple rental. . . It will be UC (United Churches) or SLD (Southern LandDevelopment) — I don 't know what name the mission is usingfor the negotiation.

"As-the office of LRH (Hub bard) will be ther e, the bu s andphone lines will have to lead to the re .. .

"THERE WILL BE an LRH private office at the FH(that is easy as I just drive in the garage and enter the thirdfloor-garage elevator hall door and go on up . Ther e willpossibly be a personal office at the ban k bldg if th ey get itclean. This is rough er as one has to step out of a car and walkto the door)."

Ron told Heldt what he would be doing:"Prob ably my best layout is to get very well known in t he

CW area with a camera in my hand and my Universal Newspress card taking pictures of'beautiful CW' which is the localbutton (they hate tourists and also retired people). Myphotosho ot people will contin ue, as I have a whole org(translation: organization) for that sort of th in g. ..

"So I think the exact plan will be that I play operationsabove security, slide in on personal PR (translation: public

relations) as th at well known ph otogr apher very visible with awhole crew camera in ha nd and living in a nearb y town. No tpush it. Just let it seep in. My portrait of the mayor will hangin city hall never fear. .. And we count on your Bl(translation: information office) to very quickly pre-alert anytrouble so I can go fishing until vou handle.

"AND WE COUNT ON YOU GUYS TO MOW IRSDOWN AND WIN ACROSS THE BOARDS.

"THAT IS THE way it will have to be played within therealities of the sce ne .. . So the program is attached."

Could this Ron have been LRH himself? Who knows?Two days later — Nov. 28,1975: Heldt issued a new

directive, "IRS: En dure." He quoted Hubbard: "Views of thescene are optimistic at this time. However knowing the insane,we must be fully prepared and positioned to get right onoperating throughout the U.S. and work until we get a straight

 jack et on IR S no mat ter w hat t hey d o . . . Ea rlier I adv ised anew corporation be set up in every org (organization) area in

U.S. to parallel t he actions of each org and simply sit ther edormant, but ready to hire the old org's staff and continue,non successor, in new quarters."

The directive said: "Flag will continue to op erate as C of Sof C (Church of Scientology of California). C of S of C will beleasing space from United Churches of Florida, a non-profitcorporation which will in turn be leasing from the owner of thebuildings."

THE PLAN called for organizing "Dormant Corp." and"Mother Church Corp." for possible future use should thechurch lose its tax exempt status and IRS seize its assets. Italso directed that means be found "of safeguarding cashreserves from IRS seizure or wipe-out."

Dec. 5: With Clearw ater folk still trying to decide what thisUnited Churches business was all about, the Guardian Officeof Scientology issued directives on P roject Power.

One goal was to "establish the indispensibility of UnitedChurches" in the community. The directive said:

"The overall plan is to locate opinion leaders — then, theirenemies, the dirt, scandal, vested interest, crime of theenemies (with overt data as much as possible). Then turn thisover to UC who will approach the opinion leader and get hisagreemen t to look into a specific subject (which will lead to theenemies' crimes). UC then 'discovers' the scandal, etc., andturns it over to the opinion leader for his use. Ops (operations)can be done as a follow up if needed to remove or restra in theenemy.

"EXAMPLE: Bl finds the Clearwater Mayor as anopinion leader and Mr. Shultz as his enemy. Overt (and

suitable guise) investigation of Shultz shows him to like littlegirls and that he walks in the park every Sunday when heattempts to drag little girls into the bushes. Bl turns this dataover to UC. UC goes to the Mayor and gets his OK to look into'what can be done to beautify Clearwater City Park.' Shortlyafter the Mayor gives his OK to look into the park, UC'discovers' that there are undesirables in the park and turnsthe data over to the Mayor. Several days later UC 'discovers'that Mr. Shultz molests little girls in the park and turns thatover to the Mayor managing to get press on the whole parkcampaign and to mak e a friend out of the Mayor. Now ifShultz is also a potential enemy of ours (which he might beafter the above is done) and the Mayor or newspaper hasn'tremoved him from a position of power then OPS (operations)does."

Church functionaries were directed "to fully investigatethe Clearwater city and county area so we can distinguish ourfriends from our enemies and handle as needed." Dossierswere to be compiled on medical societies, clinics, hospitals,police departments and agencies, public relations firms, drugfirms, federal, state and local government agencies, citycouncil, banks, investment houses, local representatives inCongress and Florida's two U.S. senators.

FINALLY, THE directive called for protecting"ourselves against any potential threat by taking control ofthe key points in the Clearwater area." This was to beaccomplished by determining key news media and politicalleaders and gaining either their allegiance or control overthem.

It didn't work that way. Instead of winning the friendship

of Mayor Gabriel Cazares, Unit ed Chur ches — which was stillfronting for the Church of Scientology at this time — foundhim critical of their secrecy.

"I am discomfited by the increasing visiblity of securitypersonnel, armed with billy clubs and Mace, employed by theUnited Churches of Florida," the mayor said. "I am unable tounderstand why this degree of security is required by areligious organization..."

Reporters had been working diligently to find out who wasbehind United Churches. They were finally successful. But onJan. 28, just as they were ready to publish their stories, Rev.Arthu r J. Maren of Los Angeles arrived in Clearwater for anews conference.

HE ANNOUNCED that the Church of Scientology ofCalifornia was the new owner of the Fort Har rison and was

also behind formation of United Churches. The Church ofScientology had kept its involvement secret, he said, becauseit didn't want to overshadow the work of United Churches.

The secret was out.Stories about this new religion, Scientology, began

appearing in  The St. Petersburg Times and the  ClearwaterSun. Mayor Cazares continued his criticism of the church andits methods.

And the church? Did it turn the other cheek?Hardly. That's not part of Scientology's creed.

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'Priority' critics of church faced special handlingThe secret was out.

It wasn't really United Churches ofFlorida that had taken over that oldClearwater landmark, the Fort HarrisonHotel. It was the Church of Scientology.

Citizens of Pinellas County received theword on Jan. 28,1976 when Rev. Arthur J.Maren, a national spokesman, came toClearwater. He said the Church ofScientology had kept the fact secret becauseit didn't want to overshadow the goodintentions of United Churches.

IT'S A WONDER the truth hadn'tcome out before then. For L. Ron Hubbard,founder of Scientology, was in town. Th ree

Clearwater ministers later recalled that hedirected th e taping of radio shows in whichthey had been invited to participate byUnited Churches.

"He looked very impressive," Rev. OtisGreen of Everybody's Tabernacle said of theelusive Hubbard. He was dressed in anarmy-type khaki-colored uniform withmatching tam-o'-shanter, Green said.

Hubbard "came right in and startedturning the knobs," Green said. Wearingearphones, he directed people where to standand was "putting all the sound together."

Rev. R. L. Wicker of Calvary Templ e ofGod said Hubbard displayed "tremendous

authority" at the taping of the show for hischurch. "They introduced him to me as Mr.Hubbard, b ut that didn't mean anything tome — they said he was an engineer," Rev.Wicker said. "When I saw his picture in th epaper, I felt like an idiot — that I ha d really,truly been had."

Hubba rd, like his church, was doing goodde ed s. .. on the face of it.

THERE WAS such contrast betweenwhat Scientology did publicly in its f irst fewmonths in Clearwater, and what went onsecretly in the Guardian office in the FortHarrison.

Oh, the church lost no time in letting thecommunity know that its velvet gloveconcealed a rock-hard fist. On Feb. 6, jus t aweek after Maren's announcement, thechurch filed a $1 -million lawsu it againstMayor Gabriel Cazares — a consis tent criticof the secrecy with which United Churchescame to C learwater — accusing him of libel,slander and violation of the church's civilrights.

But five days later, the p ublic was invitedto an open house at the Fort Harrison. About500 people showed up and they found the oldhotel looking better, cleaner.

Rev. Fred Ulan, flashing a big smile,greeted everyone and spok e of a week of "upsand downs." He introduced Maren and,pointing at his head, said: "See, no horns."

MAREN TOLD the crowd the Churchof Scientology had come in peace and goodwill.

"Scientologists are people who don'tdrink o r violate laws," he said. "The y arefriendly and want to contribute. We'd likeyou to give us the right to have ourviewpoint."

Peace? Good will?

The day after Maren had come toClearwater, an official of the churchcirculated copies of his "weekly repo rt" to

other church executives. Among theproblems h e listed in typical Scientologyreport fashion was this one:

"SITUATION: Set of entheta(translation: unfavorable) articlesconnection UCF (translation: UnitedChurches) and Scientology and LRH(translation: Hubbard) breaking now in theFlag area papers.

"WHY: Unhandled enemies (reporters

Targets of Scientology operations

on the Suncoast in 1976

and media terminals); possible plant and

definite out security."HANDLED: Collections and Ops

(translation: operations) underway onreporters Orsini, Sableman, and Snyder(radio broadcaster). Results of Ops not in yet

Flag was the church headquarters at theFort Harrison. Bette Orsini of the St.Petersburg Times,  Mark Sableman of theClearwater Sun,  and Bob Snyder of RadioStation WDCL, Dunedin, had been reportingon Scientology. They were already markedfor church operations to discredit them.

THIS REPORT was among thousands

of church documents — its own anddocuments that it had stolen — that werereleased recently by a federal cou rt inWashington.

The day before Maren told the crowd atthe hotel how Scientology wanted tocontribute, Joe Lisa, assistant guardian forinformation at Flag, sent his weekly report toother church offices. Among the dozensituations cited was this one:

"SITUATION: Chamber of Commercehas enemies on it that PR (public relations) \a T\c\f   a WftTO OI

"WHY: We did not liaise with PR toinform them.

"HAN DLED: We compiled a list ofenemies that we knew of at the Chamber ofCommerce and turned it over to DG PR US(deputy guardian for public relations U.S.)for his and Flag PR Bureau's use in theirplanned handling of the terminals at theChamber of Commerce. Report sent."

On Feb. 17, Lisa wrote Jimmy Mulligan,an aide to Mrs. Hubbard on the commodore'sstaff, that "a letter is going out to the Sun

(one of those 5 day warning le tters). Basically

they are going to be warned not to printan ym or e. .. or else we will sue."

He also said, "Yesterday we turned overto PR scandal material for a Br I PR (branchone) attack on the medicos in these herepart s. I am also having some follow up on thisand am drawing up a project to get a largescale attack going on nursing homes, medicalcenters, mental health and psychiatricclinics. I'll be sending a copy up lines as soonas I get that competed."

The next day, M.S. — Mary SueHubbard, wife of the founder — wrote herassessment of the Clearwater scene to DickWeigand, deputy guardian for information,U.S. Of Mayor Cazares, she said: "Hethought he had an excellent handle on uspolitically and was using it to gain PR forhimself politically. He has nowhere to goexcept in the political arena. We were thefootball that blew up on him when we did notprove out to be tied to some gambling orother interests."

SHE GAVE her assessments ofreporters Snyder and Sableman and of  TheSt. Petersburg Times.

"Of all," she said, "I consider the SPT(Times) to be the most dangerous. Poyntec(?) obviously feels he owns thi s neck of the

woods morally, spiritually, politically andotherwise."

She was referring to Nelson Poynter, theTimes'   chairman of the board.

That March 19, the open face ofScientology announced that it was selling thechurch's seagoing flagship, the 3,287-ton Apollo, because it had established a new"land base" in Clearwater.

But the secret face was plotting. Eleven

days later Mitchell Hermann (who was also

known as Mike Cooper), southeast U.S.secretary, wro te Lisa: "Attached is a list ofops customers in order of priority. Pleasebegin (actually please continue) sending upops on these folk. Robert Snyder, MayorCazares, Poynter/Patterson , Steve Advokat(unless he shifts off the heavy entheta)/MikePride / Stuart, Orsini/Andy Barnes, NanMc L e a n . . . "

Eugene C. Patterson was editor andpresident, Bette Orsini a reporter andAndrew Barnes the managing editor of  TheSt. Petersburg Times.  Ron Stuart was themanaging editor, Mike Pride the city editorand Steve Advokat a reporter for theClearwater Sun; Nan McLean was adisaffected church member.

APRIL CAME. T he church announcedit was doubling its professional staff inClearwater to handle an expansion of itsprogram. About the same time, Rev. Ulan,the newly-named director of UnitedChurches, was accepted as a member of theClearwater Ministerial Association.

The church did not reveal the letternational operations officer Randy Windment(also known as Bruce Raymond) had writtento Weigand.

"Dear Dick"Sitn: The "Bank" of CW is following the

anti-C of S line of attack."Data: The Mayor of CW and the local

press and others are attacking the C of S."LRH's policy on (PR) Black

Propaganda states something to the effect of'Black Propaganda if overused turns on itsuser.' (Actual quote:'... Black Propagandais not something one lightly instigates. For itrecoils on the person who uses it.')

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Critics  from Page 8"The attached OP is designed to get Base

'overattacked' but at the same time to do noharm to Base.

"The idea is to 3P (attack) ourselves insuch a manner that the persons who continueto attack us seem to be Facists, commiehaters, and bigots. This OP should make"Black" and Jewish allies if PR carries theball.

"Th e OP is very simple to do."I've talked to SE SEC (southeast

directorate secretary) about this and hethinks that no harm could come out of it butthat the letter should be more pronounced inits bigotry.

"Love,"Randy."

THE ATTACHED senario for theoperation was labeled "O P Yellow." It saidthat an anonymous letter should be mailed toall downtown Clearwater businesses,particularly "ALL the Jewish ones." In fact,it said, to mail it to businesses as far away asTampa.

The suggested lette r said:

"Fellow Clearwaterians (check spell)

"God bless the Mayor. He is a trueChristian and the entire town should beproud of him. He has stood up againstun-Christian Scientology and God isobviously with him.

"On the Scientology issues, the Mayor isright. We back him all the way. B ut what weshould also do is make sure no mor eundesireables move into Clearwater.

"We kept th e Miami Jews from moving inand turning beautiful Clearwater into Miami

Beach. The blacks in Clearwater are decentand know their pl ac e. .. "

Peace? Good will?

WHILE THE church was publiclywooing citizens of Clearwater, behind thescenes its agents were investigating publicofficals and civic leaders and compilingdossiers on them.

On Feb. 21 , a two-page report from MollyHarlow, collections officer for Flag to Lisaprovided biographical background onClearwater City Atty. Thomas Bustin. AMay report furnished Lisa with pertinentdata on The Upper Pinellas County

Association for Retarded Children. Aninformation bureau daily report said theinvestigation of county commissioners wasalmost done.

A remarkable amount of time was spentby church officials in dealing with peoplethey perceived to be enemies or potentialenemies. Remarkable also was thecomplexity of the schemes they wove todiscredit people and organizations.

Church played dirty

tricks on CazaresIn Clearwater in January 1976, Gabriel

blew his horn.No walls tumbled. But Mayor Gabriel

Cazares' persistent questioning of themotives of a new religious group tha t hadtiptoed into town helped put a crimp in plansof the Church of Scientology to quietly takecontrol of the city.

His whistle-blowing moved him to a highplace on the hit list maintained in thechurch 's Gua rdian Office where officialsspent their days operating an espionage

system and concocting dirty tricks todiscredit "enemies" of Scientology.

SCHEMES DEVISED to handleCazares were among the most viciousdescribed in church documents recentlyreleased by a federal court in Washington.

Scientology's spy operation was operatingsmoothly in the winter of 76, and Cazareswas destined to become enmeshed in wheelsturning in Washington.

L. Ron Hubbard, church founder andcommodore, had come ashore in Clearwater.The church had recently purchased the FortHarrison Hotel for a new base for Flag — itsprogram and theology center. Thecommodore, it appears, was operating out ofthe King Arthur Courts condominium inDunedin where the church had rented onebuilding of the five-building complex. MarySue Hubbard, his wife and the commodorestaff guardian, was on the scene.

The spy operation was focused onWashington where Mike Meisner, assistantguardian for information D.C., was runningagents (how to run agents had been set forthin detail in a policy letter written some yearsbefore by Hubbard). Gerald Bennett Wolfe,whose code name was "Silver," had beenemployed as a clerk-typist at the InternalRevenue Service since Nov ember 1974.

Sharon Thomas had been working for theCoast Guard since January 1975, but Meisnerhad given her order s to get a job at theJustice Department. She went to work thereon Jan. 29,1976.

At the beginning of February, Meisnerwas ordered to Los Angeles for briefings.While he was ther e, a Telex message came infrom Jimmy Mulligan, commodore staffguardian assistant for information, inClearwater. He wanted to know the situationregarding access to current informationabout Scientology in the office of LewisHubbard, an IRS official.

MEISNER PREPARED a reply. Hesaid that he and Silver had broken into LewisHubbard's office three weeks earlier with thehelp of Don Alverzo, a church agen t who hadbeen sent to Washington from Los Angeles tohelp because he k new how to pick locks.They found only old data on Scientology, hesaid.

"I found a note on Hubbard's desk thatsaid something like 'See Friedberg re Sen',"Meisner said. "From that note I assumedthat Friedberg (Stephen) was handling thePT (translation: recent) Sen material...Last week we obtained access to Friedberg'sarea by leaving one of the doors unlockedduring the day... Friedberg had material on

the Calif, scene dated as late as 26 Jan. 7 6 . . .The PT material was sent upline last week."

(Keep Meisner in mind. In the summer of1977, he turn ed himself in to the FBI.Information that he provided led to raids onchurch offices and confiscation of 48,149documents that were the basis for theindictment and convictions in Washington ofnine Scientologists — including Mary SueHubbard, Wolfe and Ms. Thomas.)

BACK  IN Clearwater, Guardian officeofficials were weighing how they couldsilence Gabriel's horn.

A six-page list of LRH (Hubbard) ordersfrom about this time has several references toCazares:

"5/2/76 (Feb. 2) C azares — PossiblyJimmy Fischer could get his school records.

"15/3/76 (March 3) Cazares — Is theresome possibility the Cubans in Miami mightget the idea that he is pro-Castro?"

On Feb. 7, the church filed a $1-million

lawsuit in U.S. District Court charging thatthe mayor had libeled and slandered thechurch and violated its civil rights. On Feb.28, Cazares replied to the church's libel suitwith an $8-million libel suit of his own.

He would have been surprised to knowthat two days earlier church agents were inAlpine, Texas digging through records in thecounty clerk's office, the police department,the office of the Border Patrol, the CatholicChurch, talking with local doctors, themidwife, long-time residents , looking forinformation on him. They even visited thegraveyard looking for headstones bearing theCazares name.

IN A "Mission Report," Mike C.(Mitchell Hermann) stated: "The missionwent to Alpine and succeeded in getting agood amount of legally useable affidavits andletters to support the fact that Cazares wasnot born in Alpine, Tex. The mission alsolocated an newspaper article announcing thebirth of a baby named 'Alpine Bill' Cazareson Jan. 30,1920, to a father with the sameinitials (J. 0. Cazares) as that of Gabriel'sfather."

A few days later, Hermann wrote DukeSnider, deputy deputy guardian for the U.S.,that Cazares would be in Washington for anational mayor's conference March 13-17. "I

am now working on a set of Ops (operations)type actions which could be done to welcomethe mayor to the nation's capital," he said.

WHAT HAPPENED  then wasdescribed by government attorneys in a"Sentencing Memorandu m" to U.S. DistrictJudge Charles R. Richey in Washingtonearlier this month as he prepared to sentencethe nine Scientologists.

"Shortly thereafter," the memorandumsaid, "defendant Hermann ordered Mr.Meisner to carry out an operation on MayorCazares during his Washington trip — thatoperation was to involve a fake hit-and-runaccident. Defendant Sharon Thomas was tobe the main participan t in that operation.She was to meet Mayor Cazares, drive himaround town, and at a predeterminedlocation stage a hit-and-run accident withMr. Meisner as the 'victim.'

"At the same time that defendantHermann was directing Mr. Meisner to carryout the 'accident,' defendant (Dick) Weigandresponded to defendant Snider's earlierorders by sending him a list of Clearwater,Fla., 'enemies' and their priority for'handling' purposes. Mayor Cazares rankedsecond on the defendants Weigand's andSnider's list, right behind the  St. PetersburgTimes.

"On March 14,1976, District of ColumbiaCollections Officer Jose ph Alesi, posing as areporter, interviewed Mayor Cazares. Duringthat interview, he met defendant SharonThomas. Thomas then offered to showMayor Cazares the town. During that drive,defendant Thomas, who was driving, stagedher fake hit-and-run accident in Rock CreekPark, hitting Michael Meisner. She drove onwithout reporting the accident to the police.

Of course, defendant Thomas knew that noharm had been caused to the 'victim.' In aletter dated March 15,1976, to CSGAssistant for Information Jimmy Mulliganand fugitive defendant Morris (Mo)Budlong, defendant Weigand discussed howScientology could use that 'fake' accidentagainst Mayor Cazares and concluded that 'Ishould think that the Mayor's political daysare at an end'."

TH E  CHURCH did not use thehit-and-run incident against Cazaresimmediately. That would come later.

Meanwhile, the Guardia n Office wasworking on "Operation Italian Fog." It was asimple Op, said Randy (National OperationsOfficer Bruce Raymond, also known asRandy Windment) in a March 23 letter toDick and Greg. "The purpose of this Op," hesaid, "is to actually get real documentationinto th e files of Mexican license bureau orbureaus stating that the Mayor got married

in Mexico to some Mexican gal 25 years agowho is not his wife so puts the mayor in aposition of bigamy. This can beaccomplished either by a bribe or a covertaction. Once the docs are plant ed, it iscleverly exposed that the Mayor ispromiscuous and a bigamist."

The detailed plan for the operation waswritten April 9 . It was accompanied by ahandwritten note th at said: "As part of thesecurity, if a bribe is used data should begiven to the person accepting the bribe topinpo int a false Who in his mind , ideally oneof the Mayor's known enemies so that if theOp gets blown up to the person who was

bribed that person would give data on theplante d Who and S. (Scientology) wouldnever come up."

Cazares, a Democrat, was by then acandidate for the congressional seat held byRepubl ican Rep. C. W. Bill Young. Thechurch worked hard to hurt his campaign.The congressman said recently that StevenHeard, a church public relations official,offered over lun ch with Douglas Gregory,Young's administrative assistant, to supplythe congressman with information that coulddamage Cazar es' campaign. Gregory — and aday later Young, by letter — refused theoffer.

ON JULY 12, Operation Keller wasgiven a green light. Its stated purpose was "tocreate havoc an d possible political decay forCazares."

Within a few days, fake letter s from"Sharon T" were mailed by church agents topolitical leaders and reporters in PinellasCounty. The letters said Cazares had beeninvolved in a hit-and-run accident inWashington.

Cazares asked the FBI to investigate.Young received a letter saying the "SharonT" letter was really authored by the Cazarescampaign to make it look like Young wasinvolved in dirty tricks. He turned it over tothe  FBI.

In an Oct. 7 weekly report, Dick Weigandtold Mo Budlong that the handling of themayor was continuing. "A r ecent pollconducted by the CW Sun received phoneyresponses from the public generated covertlywhich showed that his opponent had acrushing lead on him," Weigand said.

And on Nov. 3,1976, Joe Lisa informedDuke Snider that Mayor Cazares had beendefeated in the congressional race as a resultof Guardian Program Order 398 — anoperation to create strife between Cazaresand th e city commission, and to place achurch agent in his campaign organization to

cause problems — and other Scientologyactions which included "spreading rumorsinside his camp, contributing todisorganization in his campaign."

The church's libel suit against Cazareswas dismissed by U.S. District Judge BenKrentzman in Tampa in th e spring of 77.The church later dropped two other suitsagainst Cazares, and he withdrew his suitagainst the church.

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Page 10 Scient ology

St. PetersburgTimes topped

'enemies' list"Poy nter is a millionaire: Does he have a butler, maid, cook,shofer (sic), gardener, etc. Put an FSM onto one of these thingsand get the low down on he and his wife."That cryptic note, with no addressee or signature, was

among the thousands of Church of Scientology documentsrecently released in connection with the trial of nineScientologists in a federal court in Washington.

Poynter? Nelson Poynter, late chairman of the board of  TheSt. Petersburg Times. FSM? Church lingo for a secret agent, a

spy-Obviously that note was just one small paragraph in a huge

ongoing program of the Guardian Office of the Church ofScientology to "handle"  The St. Petersburg Times,  theorganization it placed at the top of its enemies list in the

Clearwater area in th e early days of 1976.Times reporter B ette Orsini discovered th at January th at

the new owner of the Fort Harrison Hotel in Clearwater was theChurch of Scientology of California, and that United Churchesof Florida, which had moved into the hotel in December, was aScientology front.  The Times was preparing to print her storywhen, on Jan . 28, Scientology announ ced it was the new owner.

The Times came quickly to the attention of the guardians ofthe publicity-shy church because of Mrs. Orsini's stories onScientology's background and the stories of reporters SusanDenley and Ardith Hilliard on the developing controversybetween the church and the citizenry of Clearwater.

BUT THE church already knew a great deal about  TheTimes.

Two months earlier, on Nov. 18,1975, a "missionaire" namedSandy provided church officials with a six-page rundown on thehistory of  The Times and the backgrounds of its owner, NelsonPoynter, and executives.

The Guardian Office struck quickly with its standard planfor silencing — or attempt ing to silence — newspapers th atwrite about it. On Feb. 4, Clearwater attorney Jack F. White Jr.,representing the Church of Scientology of California, sent aletter to  The Times and Mrs. Orsini.

"Gentlemen," it began. "This is your notice und er Chapter770.01, Florida Statutes, that our clients intend to instituteaction against you for libel, including disparagement of title toreal property and possibly for invasion of privacy, for thefollowing publication, which we consider libelous." It cited twoparagraphs of a story by Mrs. Orsini in which she described theworkings of an E-meter, a device used by the church in auditing.

The let ter was a threa t of suit; no suit was filed.Documents released by the federal court in Washington

show that on Feb. 11 — one week after that thr eat was made —Duke Snider, deputy deputy guardian U.S., wrote HenningHeldt, deputy guardian U.S., that he had come up with anexcellent defense should anyone accuse the church of trying tosilence  The Times.

"THERE ARE 3 papers here, the CW Sun, St. Pete  Times,Tampa Tribune"  he said. "The CW Sun   and St. Pete  Timesprinted the most stuff. Tampa ran a lesser amount but stillsome entheta (translation: unfavorable publicity).

"When we sent out the letters threatening libel we did nothave time to get around to the  Tribune,  they had printed less,but still some entheta and we wanted to go over their articles

more carefully."Just that day, he said, his office was preparing to send aletter to the  Tribune threatening a suit, but then his plan cameto mind.

"So with the  Tribune  (Tampa)," Snider said, "we do notthreaten any action but just let PR (public relations) handle. Asa defense we then point to them and say 'We d